Chapter 244
Chapter 244
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 244
Chapter Title: Clash with Pira Eleven
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Adhai and I soared upward, dodging the falling ice shards.
I was worried about PS-111's absence, but I couldn't let Pira Eleven escape no matter what. If I did, all my trump cards would be exposed to the enemy players.
Vowing to wrap this up as quickly as possible, I burst out of the canyon.
A fierce battle was raging in the skies between the Gallerons and the warship, hundreds of meters long.
The night sky, which should have been pitch black, was anything but tonight. The breaths of cosmic dragons lit up the heavens, the flames from mechanical weaponry roared, and eerie clouds glowed ominously.
Just like in the game, the battlefield in this world was a dazzling, chaotic spectacle.
'But here, death is permanent.'
I pumped my wing-arms harder to pick up speed. Adhai, carrying the Mother of the Skies on his back, stuck close by my side.
The ship’s cannons, which had been firing at the Gallerons, swiveled toward me. Then, like fireworks exploding, muzzles flashed.
Hundreds of torpedoes launched from Pira Eleven’s vessel hurtled toward Adhai and me, intent on pulverizing us.
Adhai, flying right beside me, braced for evasive maneuvers. I was readying myself for the incoming barrage when something unexpected happened in the ominously glowing clouds.
The clouds, swirling like a massive typhoon, unleashed bolts of purple lightning.
The psychic-powered lightning forked like claws, spreading over the torpedoes. Thin tendrils of energy touched them, triggering chain explosions.
Through the billowing smoke rising from the blasts, I spotted the culprit behind the lightning.
Ort, the black-scaled Galleron and second-in-command of Adhai’s flock, locked eyes with me briefly. He glanced once at Adhai flying beside me, then resumed his assault on the ship.
Ort dove toward the ground, wings spread wide to evade torpedoes. The other Gallerons followed in formation behind him. Those that dodged split into two groups and climbed higher.
'They’re moving just like they did against the Skywhale.'
Skywhale adults dwarfed any Galleron. They were maintaining an encirclement formation, fighting as if taking down a larger foe.
The Gallerons that reached the ship’s underbelly breathed fire in unison. Dragonfire scorched the hull and incinerated the underside cannons. Cannons stimulated by psychic power mid-launch detonated on the spot.
As the Gallerons unleashed their barrage, Pira Eleven counterattacked.
Drones poured out from inside the ship, swarming toward the Gallerons. The ones hiding in the canyon had been just a fraction—there were hordes of them. It looked like a plague of locusts bursting from a trapped hive.
A wave pulsed out from the APD swarm, nullifying psychic power. Adult Gallerons like Ort quickly retreated beyond the drones’ attack range, but not all managed it.
The green Gallerons hit by the APDs plummeted in speed. Still juveniles, unskilled in psychic power, they could barely stay aloft with wingbeats. The cannons targeted these weakened ones.
'Not on my watch!'
While Pira Eleven traded blows with the Gallerons, I closed in on the ship and opened my maw wide. A mass of green fungal blobs surged from deep in my throat, slicing through the air to splatter over the cannons.
Acid fungi that treated hard alloys as a meal devoured the muzzles at blinding speed. Torpedoes ready to fire exploded as their ports clogged. The shock halted the cannons’ firing, allowing the psychic-drained green Gallerons to flee the battlefield.
'Four hit by APDs.'
Now only four white Gallerons, five greens, and Ort remained airborne. Confirming the greens landed safely in the snow, I prepared my psychic breath.
Torpedoes flew at me again, but this time I wasn’t caught off-guard. No. 26 knew I was charging a big attack and stepped in.
Torpedoes the size of three or four grown men hung motionless in the air. As No. 26 waved its tentacles, the torpedoes shivered and plummeted to the ground.
Psychic Hold (Lv. Max)
Torpedoes neutralized and dropped.
In the brief window No. 26 bought me, I finished charging. My monster tentacle glowed, erupting like a volcano and slamming massive energy into the ship.
Pira Eleven’s vessel lurched violently, a huge hole blasted in its side. Some internal systems took collateral damage too—localized explosions rocked other sections.
The APDs rushed to protect their master. The drone cloud spewed nullification waves nonstop.
Energy gathering in my tentacle scattered under the interference, but it didn’t matter. Thanks to the Dragon’s Heart, psychic power regenerated faster than it dissipated.
'And I’ve got backup.'
Adhai and the white Gallerons gathered around me, firing their breaths in tandem. Adhai’s energy bolts and the Gallerons’ heat rays merged with mine, hammering the APDs.
Overhead, Ort orchestrated a maelstrom. Ship-launched torpedoes veered off course in the lightning and storm, detonating harmlessly in the sky.
The APDs kept dispersing nullification waves, but they couldn’t withstand the relentless psychic barrage.
APDs were vulnerable to staggered attacks to begin with, and combined with the Gallerons’ overwhelming firepower, defense was impossible.
If it were a full fleet instead of one ship, they might’ve held with more drones—but that was irrelevant here.
The expensive drone barrier crumbled, and breaths set the ship’s bow ablaze. The enraged Gallerons’ flames were so intense they melted straight through the thick hull.
Judging further damage would hinder escape, perhaps?
Pira Eleven’s ship spewed a salvo of torpedoes, then accelerated above the clouds. It was attempting hyperspace jump straight from the atmosphere.
｢Adhai’s offspring!｣ ｢Here!｣ ｢Our grudge!｣ ｢We repay!｣
At Adhai’s command, the Gallerons ignored defense and pressed the attack.
Battered and bloody amid the barrage, they refused to yield, blasting dragonfire relentlessly. I joined in, ripping apart remaining APDs bare-handed.
But the ship was ready. Its hull took on a faint blue glow—the sign hyperspace was imminent.
Even as storms raged and it sustained hits, it was committing to the jump into deep space.
'This won’t work.'
This was unforeseen.
Entering hyperspace with heavy damage risked the ship splitting mid-jump or miscalculating coordinates and plunging into a star.
I’d assumed machine logic would prevent such recklessness, but no. Pira Eleven was betting on slim odds over certain death here.
I halted my breath and accelerated toward it. Landing atop the rear hull, I vomited acidic fungi onto the plating.
Disable the hyperspace engines to stop the jump, or ride along—those were my only options.
'It can always come back lat—'
As I melted the hull to breach inside, small anti-air turrets on the rear fired at me. The tiny projectiles, too small for bullets, stuck to my body.
The instant I felt the impacts, strength drained from me. Crushing lethargy and helplessness nearly shook me off the ship.
Beyond mere pain, it felt like my life force was being stolen—a sensation I’d felt once before.
'Bloodriver!'
I thought it hadn’t used them yet, but here they were.
The hidden Bloodrivers were Pira Eleven’s final gambit.
Against Muriel, I’d coated myself in Gremlin Moss to wreck machines beforehand, but not now.
And it unleashed double the number Muriel had—fifteen at least, from what my fading senses detected. Enough to mummify even an Odd Grad or Ice Horror in seconds.
My tough carapace was shriveling, vitality leaching away. Only by focusing everything on my grip was I holding on.
'What now?'
Weakened like this, falling meant death. But clinging on promised only misery.
'Gotta decide quick... Huh?'
Then the life-drain sensation weakened. My body slowly began recovering.
Revived auxiliary organs let me sense what was happening.
'No. 26!'
As I faltered, No. 26 above me intervened. Using psychic power, it was peeling off the Bloodrivers stuck to me and flinging them away.
With strength returning, I tensed my combat arms and forced my way inside.
Thanks to No. 26, I escaped the Bloodrivers, but problems lingered. The hull glowed with vivid blue.
In seconds, this ship would vanish to some frozen world far below.
'Too late.'
I couldn’t stop it now. After it jumped, I’d have to track, fight, or flee.
Or so I thought.
Until I heard a broadcast that shouldn’t have sounded here.
A familiar voice echoed from speakers somewhere inside. The blue glow blanketed across the ship vanished as if it had never been.
Behind the familiar voice came the ship’s original mechanical tone.
Pira Eleven’s voice sounded far more urgent than before.
It had no choice. Gallerons were flying in below to tear the ship apart, a hostile behemoth lurked inside, and now an unexpected traitor tightened the noose.
Even if any Screamer remained aboard, it couldn’t subdue us. Pira Eleven was out of moves.
True to its Supreme Council specs, Pira Eleven swiftly regained control. Right after its voice blared from the speakers, faint blue light returned to the corridors.
'At least we bought time.'
PS-111 had done its part. Now it was our turn.
As I moved to hunt Pira Eleven, the ship’s controller, the speakers continued their argument.
To Pira Eleven’s plea, the traitor PS-111 replied curtly.
As always, its voice remained utterly calm.